Lessons from the Life of Job: Week 7

When you feel like God is giving you a calling

to do something, and then you have a relationship with

a church that gives you that opportunity to fulfill that calling,

that's a huge blessing.

We were new to the church scene. My mother in

law found this wonderful church and we came here, sat

through one of Pastor Andrew's sermons and it moved us.

So we decided to start participating in different groups.

We went to the.

Next Step luncheon, which was super fun, and we learned

about all the new opportunities that there were for us

to serve in the ministry. So I decided to bring

everybody to the One More Market. It's a moving experience

to see the same people every week come back and

how happy they are.

Did they have this?

Yeah?

I was just helping out at the neighborhood market originally

just being a floater, just helping out wherever I could.

There.

I got a text mask and if I would be

willing to do deliveries, so as I go, yeah, absolutely,

I'll help out wherever. I met Chuck and he kind

of explained it. We're going out to the unhoused to

deliver groceries to them and see what kind of needs

they had. You know, Jesus really calls us to love

our neighbors.

I live near the church.

I've come to this church, Oh Goodness.

For over eight years, and the clinic has provided me

with a window to my neighbors that I never knew.

I have seen people come into the door hardened, faced

a lot of adversity, faced a lot of nose, a

lot of challenges, and I've seen them leave here with

tears of joy and hope, heart's lifted, shoulders relaxed, having

been touched by what is the love of Christ and

what he calls us to do.

This church is such a servant minded church in James.

It states that we need to help our orphans and

windows in short repair. Care connects skin killd and or

able bodied members of our church to the widows and

single moms and to help them with basic repair and

we come alongside them and lift that burden off of them.

I work for the umpas on Us ministry. That translates

to one more step. The main idea was to help

the Hispanic families that just moved to Indy to find

employment and stability. Part of my family that moved to

the state's long time ago and had to go through

like very hard times. So I feel like I can

relate to what they feel and I'm just glad to

be able to be like a friendly hand for them,

like someone that they can trust.

It's a doorway to what our calling as Christians is

to serve others and to show God's love through our actions.

We're all part of God's body or his hands in

his feet, and I knew that I wanted to get involved,

and I just don't know what my special gifts are,

but I know that to be able to find out,

I'm not going to find out by sitting at home

on the couch. There are a lot of unique opportunities

to serve that fit people's experiences, whether it's local missions,

serving with the children and youth ministries, or Celebrate Recovery.

I believe they say that Celebrate Recovery is a weekly

celebration of healing from life's hurts, hang ups, and habits,

and a welcoming and caring community. It's a safe place

for anyone and everyone to really build those life changing

connections and receive hope for a new beginning. No matter

what ministry you're part of, everybody is very loving and

you get to make new friends.

So worth it. Well, good morning, let's get a hand

for that in it.

Also, so as we've been making these videos, the purpose

we started making some videos about a year ago and

shooting them mount into our community is to reintroduce our

community to our church, let them know what we're.

About and also how can we serve them.

But also, you know, we made a commitment as a

church a few years ago that we are not gonna

be a church that.

Tries to win people to our church by.

You know, fancy services, cool music and all this other stuff. No,

we're gonna call people to a mission and the mission

of Christ, to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

And so what these videos do.

And please when you see this on Facebook or anything

on meta.

Please share it immediately and invite people here church.

So one purpose is to show the community here's how

we could serve you. Another purpose is if people are

you know, stirred up in their heart and they're like, man,

I feel like God's calling me maybe to attend a church. Well,

come join a mission, not a style, join a mission

where we go and we become the hands and feet

of Christ and we're excited to soon we'll be able

to add immigrant connection to that ministry. And so God

is continuing And if it wasn't for your faithfulness, we

wouldn't be able to do this. Each time we've launched

the ministry, it costs money, and all we've had to

do is go and look at savings. It's there because

you've been faithful, and so thank you very very much.

Now today is the second to last week of our

study of the Book of Job, and so today we're

going to be looking at you know, what's the Book

of Job trying to teach us overall as a congregation,

to help us become.

A better church.

I think when I first started studying Job, I thought

it was just going to be a book about how

to suffer. Yeah, that teaches us that, But when you

really look at it week after week, it's teaching us

how to be a better church by living out the lessons,

some of them by via negativa and also some by

some good witness. So let's pray, prepare our hearts to

receive from God today. God, we give you pray today,

and we thank you for the opportunity to study your word,

to seek you, to know you.

God. Speak deep into our hearts in Jesus name, we

pray Amen.

You know one thing I've always loved is listening to

children whenever they're asked serious questions.

And sometimes kids almost always kids.

When they're asked a serious question about life, they will

more often not give you a hilarious answer. And it's

fun to ask kids serious questions.

You never know what you're gonna get.

Take, for instance, the subject of love and marriage. Kristen

h ten was asked, how do you decide who to marry?

And here's what she said.

No person really decides before they grow up who they're

going to marry. God decides it all the way before,

and you get to find out later who you're stuck with. Derek,

age eight, was asked how can a stranger tell if

two people are married, and he said, well, you might

have to guess based on whether they seem to be yelling.

At the same kids. Just go over to the children's

lobby on Sunday morning. That is a truth.

Laurie, age eight, was asked, what do you think your

mom and dad have in common?

And she says, well, I know this.

Both of them don't want any more kids. Anita, aged nine,

was asked, is it better to be single or married?

And she said, well, it's better for girls to be single,

but not for boys. Boys need someone to clean up

after them.

Yeah.

And then Ricky, aged ten, this is somebody I think

that Harvard should follow his whole life, see how his

life turns out.

He was asked how would you make a marriage work?

And he says, well, tell your wife that she looks pretty,

even if she looks like a truck.

They should study that kid. They should study that kid.

You know, it's fun to ask kids serious questions, knowing

we're probably going to get, you know, some comedy out

of it. But when life turns upside down and we're struggling,

we're dealing with loss or pain. When we ask serious questions,

we want serious answers. Funny answers are not going to do.

And as we've walked through the Book of Job as

a family, we've asked some serious questions for the last.

Two months, like why do good people suffer?

How can God allow a tragedy when we know good

and well that he could stop it or prevent it.

How do we help our good friend when they're struggling?

You know, what do we say what do we not say?

What do we do? What do we not do?

How do we respond when everything is taken from us

our job, our family, our home, our.

Security, big one?

How do we trust and worship God in the midst

of life altering news. For two months we've pondered these questions,

and then this past week, as a church family, we

needed to ask every single one of those questions all

over again. Rod Bryant was an amazing dad who loved

his son Jason in amazing ways.

Those of us who.

Watched their relationship admired Rod. Rod served on our security team.

He was a greeter.

He was a small group host who took meticulous notes

on prairie quest.

Rod was there when anybody needed them.

Just ask our staff. Any of us needed some help,

he was there. He was a faithful member of this church,

and those of us who knew him, we just knew this.

He was on a security team, so he was out

in the lobby a lot.

He was just fun to hang out with. He was

just an enjoyable guy. I had the.

Privilege of Marian Rod and Cindy a few years ago,

and man, he loved her. He loved her and she

was an amazing woman. She loved people deeply here at

this church. She was a wonderful mother, a friend. She

hosted a small group with Rob, and she served as

a greetor, and she served in children's ministry, and she

was a prayer partner and saw her come up here

many times at the inn of services. She also served

in our neighborhood market and she was a very kind

and sincere person, and they loved each other deeply. And

then there's Jason, the most sincere and passionate worshiper of

God in our church. Now, those of us who have

normally come to second Service, we know that the family

typically come in a little late because they were always serving.

And whether it's here or here, but over in this

section here, you would look over and you would see

Jace worshiping with both hands up passionately. I've had many

worship leaders tell me that often they would look over

to him and they would be so inspired while they

were leading. And there were several times over the years

when I would look over at him worshiping and I

would pray this prayer to God and I would say, God,

I wish I could worship you like him. I wish

I could worship you like him and Jace.

A lot of you who knew him knew that he

had down syndrome.

And he taught us how to love people, how to

hug tightly, how to laugh, and he loved to serve

as a greeter.

Just a few weeks ago, we were out in the

lobby and he.

Found out it was my birthday and he looked at

me and told me that I was old. And then

his dad walked up and he pointed to his dad

and he says, really old. If we had such a

laugh out of that, you know, we say that we

want to be a better church.

They made us a better church.

Last Sunday night, on the way home from visiting his mother,

all three passed away in a tragic accident, and all

of a sudden, the Book of Job went from the

Middle East and it traveled all the way over here

to Indianapolis into our lives, and many of us we

were dumbfounded with grief and shock and disbelief.

And let's be honest, we all asked.

A question why, And then we asked the second question,

how do we respond? And then the third question, which

is the same as the first, but why. A couple

hours within here in the news, the staff gathered to

the sanctuary and here and we sat down and we

worshiped together. We were sad, we were confused, We had

a lot of questions, but we worshiped, and we found

something out while we were worshiping, even though it was

difficult to worship. I found out why Job worshiped after

his family.

Was lost.

It's when we worship, we invite the presence of God

into our healing. And we worshiped here even though we

were sad and we didn't understand.

And let me tell you something, and let me tell

you why we worshiped.

Earlier this summer, we learned that when life gets turned

upside down, our first response is to worship.

We were taught that by Job.

Now we did not want to apply that lesson so soon,

but I was thankful that God was gracious enough to

give us his word that teaches us what to do

when life gets turned flipped upside down. And the story

of Job, as many of us knows, as a story

of tragedy, but we often focus on Job's suffering.

But today, in our.

Second to last week on the book of Job, here's

what I want to do today. I simply want to

look at ask the question, how will the Book of

Job make us a better congregation? And so I pulled

out four lessons from the Book of Job. But I

believe throughout the Book of Job, these are the lessons

we learn. For some of you, it will be new lessons.

For some of you it will be reminders. But that's

what we're gonna do today. We're gonna look at it.

And as we grow older together, as we grow together,

as we suffer together, one way that we could become

a better church is by living out these lessons.

So let's go ahead and look at some of these lessons.

The first lesson that we learn from Job is we

don't get tomorrow's script today. I think we know that

we don't get tomorrow's script today.

The story opens up. Everything's going great, he's a.

Godly man, he has success, he has money, he has

an amazing family.

Then one terrible.

Day he loses it all, and then the most devastating

news of all. While he was still talking, another messenger

arrived and said, your children were having a party at

the home of the oldest brother when a tornado swept

in off the desert and struck the house. It collapsed

on the young people and they died. I'm the only

one to get out alive and tell you what happened. Now,

that's some devastating news. And let me tell you something.

As I've just been living in the Book of Job

for two months, I felt like the Book of Job

was so relatable in so many situations with our friends losses,

but a whole family being gone.

That just didn't connect. It just seemed like And then

I look at our.

Church this week, I look at Texas gives credibility to

our word. It seemed like a fantasy almost, But now

we see that this can happen just like that. And

Joe booke up that morning not knowing that by nightfall

his whole life was gonna be devastated. And again it

reminds us that we don't get tomorrow's script today. In

other words, life can change just like that in an instant, and.

Only God knows what's coming next.

I thought a lot about Horatio Spafford Monday morning.

Let me tell you a little bit about Spafford.

For those of you who've been in a church for

a long time, you know all about him, You've.

Heard his story.

Spafford was a successful businessman in Chicago, and the Great

Fire of Chicago cost him financial ruin.

He lost everything, and then shortly after that his.

Son got sick and died, and so his family was overwhelmed.

And he looked at his wife and the four daughters

and said, you know what, our family just needs to

take a moment.

We're gonna go vacation.

We're gonna it's been a season over in Europe, and

we're just gonna learn to.

Cope and live again.

Spafford stayed behind his family went over because he had

to finish up some business, and halfway across the Atlantic,

they were struck by another boat.

He lost all four of his daughters.

And then his wife sent him a telegram and she says,

saved alone, what shall I do? Can you imagine that

in a matter of days, losing everything, ready for vacation,

and now your life is devastated. And so as he

crossed the Atlantic, he got to the spot where the

ship captain said, this is where the crash happened. And

it was in that moment the presence of God fell

upon Spafford, and he gave Spafford a song that ministers

through the decades, and the centuries he gave the church

a gift.

It was a song called it is Well, and we've

heard it. It is well with my soul.

You know the words that say when sorrows like Sea

Billo's roll, whatever my Lotow has taught me to say,

it is well, it is well with my soul. And

those words were written by somebody whose life just got devastated.

And it reminds us we don't know what tomorrow holds,

but we do know who holds tomorrow. And it was

with his faith in the midst of struggling that he

was able to say it is well. And it reminds

us of Job's example. What did Job do whenever he

lost everything? Here it is Job, Wan says. Joe got

to his feet, he ripped his robe, he shaved his head,

and then he fell to the ground.

And he worshiped.

We as a staff, we gathered Monday and we sung

it is well. Joe's story and Spaffer's story teaches us

that life is unpret odactable.

We don't know what's gonna happen.

This next week, or what diagnosis we're gonna find out about,

or what opportunity or calamity. We don't get Tomorrow's script today.

So what do we do as followers of Christ. Well,

we make a commitment to live ready. As followers of Christ,

we live ready. Now what's it mean to live ready?

It means that we stay close to God every single day.

We hold our plans loosely, and we trust that God

is in control.

James four or fourteen.

Says, you don't know the first thing about tomorrow. And

so as followers of Christ, every day we say God,

I trust you, I know that you are God, I

know that you're in control.

I got some plans, But.

Lord, at the end of the day, I'm just following you,

and I trust you, and we live ready for whatever

today may bring. See, instead of living fear of the unknown,

we learn from job to trust in the God of

the unknown. This every day we pray, Lord, today I

put my life and my family, my everything in your hands. Now,

who and here is a planner? Raise your hand. I'm

a planner. Do you all know what I'm gonna be

doing in November? Y'all know I'm the worst pastor in

America In November. I plan on hunting. I plan it

every year. I hope I'm honting in November. But it's

not guaranteed, so we hold our plans loosely. But while

we hold our plans, we can do it because we

can trust that God is faithful and he'll take care

of us.

And so when we have something.

Unexpected like a job loss, an accident, a global pandemic

that we didn't see coming, we shouldn't be shocked where

we're like, oh my gosh, God has fallen off the throne.

No.

No, we in calamity, when casualties, when all.

These things st our life, we don't go, oh my gosh, God.

Fell off a throne. No, we remember that he is

on the throne.

And because we know that he is on the throne,

we worship.

The king who sits there.

We worship we trust in him. And then we remember

Job's words in the midst of our shock in life,

the Lord gave and the Lord is taken away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

The second lesson we learn from Job is they even

good friends can give bad guidance, So discernment matters. Even

our good friends who love us, who care about us,

who are well meaning, they can give us really bad

advice sometimes, So we need to have discernment. Now, let's

look at what's going on here. Job has lost everything,

but now he's suffering. He's got boils all over his body.

He's absolutely miserable, and his wife is watching him suffer,

and she can't handle it anymore. So she looks at

him and says, are you still maintaining your Curse God

and die? Now, when we read that, we're like, oh,

that's not a good wife. Curse God and die, My friends,

those were words that came out of a mother who

just lost ten children. Those were words from a mother

who just watched her husband suffer so much that she

just wished that he didn't have to suffer.

One more moment. You know.

I used to read that scripture with a judgmental attitude

when I was younger, But just a few years ago,

I was very close to my grandmother.

I've talked about her a lot. She was more like

a mom.

I lived with her, and she got to the point

where she wasn't doing well at all, and I would

go over to Middletown and visit often, And my last

visit before she passed away, I went over there and

it took her forever to come down, but she wanted

to come downstairs because she wanted to sit at the

table with me. And then I watched her eat and

she just kept choking everybody, so she kept asperating, and

you know, and just kept being sick because food would

get lodging her lungs.

And then you know, she's in the hospital.

And then when she and I was alone, she looked

at me and said, I just want to go. I

just want to go to Heaven. When I left, I

did something I never thought I would do before I

start having in my prayer time every day, I just said, God,

will you please just let her die?

Iver?

You know how many times I prayed for God to

rescue her when she was sick. But I saw the

pain she was in and I didn't want her to

be half pain anymore. Did that mean I loved her

any less? Absolutely not. So we see this bad advice.

It doesn't excuse it, but it comes out of pain.

And often our friends will come and give us advice

because they love.

Us, they care about as in this well meaning.

But here's the thing.

If they give his advice that is contrary to God's word,

it's still bad advice. Often when you're struggling, often when

you are suffering, you're gonna get advice from people who

love you and care about you. But if it does

not line up of God's word, you're you're gonna have

to pass a reminder of the Apostle Peter. The Apostle Peter,

when Jesus said, you know.

I'm not ready to go to Jerusalem. When I go

to Jerusalem, they're gonna beat me, They're gonna kill me.

And I'm gonna do.

This because this is what God has called me. He's

talked about how he was gonna die for the sins

of all humanity.

And then Peter, his good friend, does this. What does

he say?

He says, never, Lord, this shall never happen to you.

He says, in other words, We're not gonna let them

take you. This is not gonna happen. So then Jesus responds,

he says, get behind me, Satan. By the way, it's

never good to be called satan by Jesus. But anyway,

and he says, you're a stumbling blocked to me. But

now now pay attention what Jesus says here. You do

not have in mind the concerns of God, but you're

thinking merely.

On human terms.

So sometimes our well meaning friends, they speak words that

oppose God's word, and that's why we need.

To have discernment. Listen to this scripture here.

Probverbs thirteen twenty says, walk with the wise, and we'll

become wise.

For a companion of fools suffers harm.

Now there's a family that started coming to our church

less than a year ago, and I went out to

launch with them, and they did not have a church background.

So I asked, so, tell me why you start coming

to church. And the guy said to me, he goes, well,

if you want to soar with the eagles, you can't

be flying around with the turkeys.

That's exactly what that verse means. That's how you interpret

that verse.

If you want to soar the eagles, you can't be

flying around with turkeys. And what this verse is saying

is that the wise people, it's those who fear God

follow his word even if it means a hard road.

The fools, they're only concerned with self interest. They will

put their own will above God's will. So we gotta

test everything according to what God says. James five, or

excuse me, James. Chapter one, verse five says this, if

any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who

gives generously to all without finding fault.

It will be given to you.

God wants to give you his wisdom. But the world

is fighting to push its philosophies on us.

So we need to discern. So here's one thing we

can do.

A practical tip, all right, give space and prayer before

acting on any major advice. Give space and prayer and

allow the Holy Spirit to enter into that decision.

All right. Number three, the third one.

And I think this one right here, as I've preached

through the weekend, I believe that this one might be

maybe the most important one for our in the future.

And I will explain that.

Okay, the third lesson that we learned from job is simply,

it's easy to become a Monday morning quarterback.

When other people suffer.

It's easy to become a Monday morning quarterback when other

people suffer.

Now, what's a Monday morning quarterback. It's one of us guys.

We watch football.

The play is over and we gough he should have

ran that play. Well, dug, you know how it ended up.

That play didn't work. So almost any other play, you know,

you could say. And so what we do with Monday

mornings is we talk about all the should haves and

the kuldofs that the quarterback or the coach does, and

so we play Monday morning quarterback and we give all

of our advice out and we analyze things. We say,

here's how you would fix things. But of course we

have zero risk, zero involvement in it, and we don't

have a three hundred pound person trying to take our

head off. So it's easy to become a Monday morning quarterback.

And let me tell you something, the church world is

famous for being Monday morning quarterbacks when it comes to

other people's trials and suffering. Who in here grew up

in a church? Raise your hand you have encountered a

Monday morning quarterback. The Monday morning quarterback finds out that

this is happening in someone's life, or this is happening

in someone's life, and instead of having a broken heart

for them, they analyze why it probably happened to them.

In other words, they're judging. And let me tell you something.

I know people who's their their life is struggling and

life is messed up, and all of a sudden, we

don't see them at church anymore. Why Because they're scared

to death of judging people.

And it's when life is.

Messed up and your life has been blown up, you

know what you need the most. You need the community,

You need the family of God. But because the church

is not worldwide for being so judgmental that people actually

stay away from the very place they need because they're

afraid of judgment. We see that Job's friends they play

Monday Morning quarterback and awful lot. Job says to them, Oh, guys,

he finally breaks down. I wish I'd never been born.

That's how much pain he's in.

I wish I'd never been born.

And instead of saying, oh my gosh, we feel you,

they try to fix and analyze this problem. And so

they said, well, Job, is easy for us to understand.

The reason you're suffering is there must be some sin

in your life because.

Surely God would not let this happen to you without

all this sin in your life. Okay, so they've analyzed it.

In other words, they're like, Job, you fumbled the ball.

In life and now you've been tackled the actor like

they had God's playbook.

You know what Job said to.

Them, I love this Job said.

Miserable comforters? Are you all?

You can translate that many ways into modern English. I'm

sure there's more profound ways to say that. But I

think Job was saying, you guys are a lousy I'm

broken and you're trying to analyze me.

And let me tell you, we might.

Not want to be too harsh on Job's friends, because

have you ever been harsh?

I know I have. I try not to be judging,

but we've all been. Josie, Oh they lost their job.

Well if that work ethic, sure, there's just a matter

of time. They're getting a divorce.

I wonder who's the big problem in that marriage, or

or I wonder who's decided to give up in that marriage.

And here's one I hope i'd never ever, ever ever

hear this one from this congregation. Effect, we're not allowed

to do this in our congregation.

You're ready at burn. But I've seen all through the years,

I've heard it so many times.

Families who raise their kid in the church. If their

kid goes astray, they somehow assigned blame on the parents,

like you weren't. How did the parents.

Mess this up?

And let me tell you something that's insane that's crazy reasoning. Okay,

I was a youth.

Pastor for many years and plenty of times.

I had a son and a daughter and from the

same house, absolute, loving family, faithful family. One goes to jail,

one goes into ministry, same household.

I've seen kids.

Who've been nurtured from little children and family was so faithful.

As soon as they were off to college, they wanted

nothing to do with God ever again. And then I

have kids whose families was complete pagans never even went

to church. Once the kid comes to church by a friend,

they get safe, and then they spend.

The rest of their life in ministry.

Okay, but for some reason in the church culture, people

like to point out and.

Say I wonder what they did wrong or whether they

do wrong.

That's completely insane, because here's what you need to understand.

When it comes to your child following Jesus, that is

a decision.

That only your child can make.

You can't make it for them. I wish I could.

You cannot make it for them. Now here's what we

can do. We can keep them in the Christian community

as much as we can. You know we're going through

that right now. My daughter hasn't missed the Week of

the Young Adults, and she's loving it. Had no idea

she would ever join that, but I'm so glad. And

when she wouldn't want to come to service, she'd liked

to come serve, and she got loved on by so

many of you, all right, but it's still at the

end of the day, I wish she would just let

me make the decision for her.

She won't, And so people, we can't be judge. And

so here's what we have to understand. You know, we

come to our friend and they're depressed, and we're like,

we gotta fix you.

Hey, cheer up. God doesn't want you to be sad.

No no, no, no, no, no no no.

That's a former play Monday Morning quarterback. And we see

this through the Bible. People are always trying to discern or.

Say, here's why there's this problem.

When we come to John chapter nine, there's a guy

who was born blind, and the people say.

To him, say, Brabbie talking to Jesus, who's sin this man?

Are his parents so that he was born blind? Jesus like,

I wonder if he just like close his eyes, like.

Oh, my lord.

And then Jesus answered and said neither this man nor

his parents sin.

But this happens so that the words of God might

be displayed.

See, they're trying to Monday Morning quarterback analyze why is

this happening to this person?

And let me tell you something people do that.

We see it again when there's a moment where Jesus

is walking into the town and they're talking about recent tragedy.

There was a taller Shalom.

It had fallen down and it killed a bunch of

people from Jerusalem, And so he starts talking about when

pilot pilot killed a bunch of people from Galilee because

there was a little uprising, and so people were kind

of saying, we know, well, they died because they're sinners.

They died because they're criminals.

And they're trying to figure.

Out why would God let that happen to all these

people if they had a tragedy, must because they did

something wrong.

So then Jesus.

Answers this and he goes, do you think those murdered

Galileans were worse sinners than any other Galileian?

Not at all, And then he points back to them.

He says, unless you turn to God, you too, you're

gonna die, and then he goes those eighteen people in

Jerusalem the other day, the ones crushed and killed.

By the taller Shalom when it collapsed and fell on them.

Do you think that they were worse citizens than any

other Jerusalem might not at all. Then he terms to them,

unless you turn to God, you too would die. So

he was saying, all right, stop judging. Whatever bad happen

to this person today, it can happen to you tomorrow.

So don't judge someone else's situation. Let me tell you.

In order for us to become a better church, sometimes

I have to go back into our church history a

little bit and say, maybe we didn't do so good here,

but let's do better next time.

Our church, and pretty much every church.

In America did not get an A plus in our

behavior during the pandemic.

So we have lessons to learn from the pandemic.

Because when the pandemic first started, there was some people

who said, well, it's because of sin, or it's because

this nation's sins. So they tried to give it a

simple reason why all this was happening.

And then this started, and.

This was something that happened in the church.

And by the way, the church was supposed to come

together in America and this was our moment to show

the world Jesus through our unity. And guess what every

church in America did. Man, why are you so fearful?

Why am I fearful? Why aren't you taking this serious?

You should have more faith as a Christian?

You should have some sense.

And people started blaming each other according to what other

people believed. Now we have hindsight and what's the reality.

And everybody was just doing the best they could. They

didn't understand. People were scared and that's okay. I hope

to God that we never have to go through something

that again.

But if we do as a church, you're gonna hear

me say this. We're gonna say it's okay.

To not be where everybody else is, and we're gonna

have to look at somebody and say, well, I'm not

where you're at, but I'm still your brother. So we

have to look back at these moments in order for

us to become a better church.

We can't be a judge church.

See when we look at the Bible, what does it

say in the Bible. The Bible says Roma is twelve fifteen.

Weep with those who weep.

It does not say lecture those who weep, analyze those

who weep.

No, we weep with those who weep.

Galatian sixty one says, if any of you is caught

in a fault or struggling, and restore them gently, watching

yourself lest.

You also be tempted.

So he says, all right, So as you go.

To somebody else in the church and say, all right,

you're struggling in the sin, and I want to help

you through this, he said, At the same time, understand

that you can be struggling with that same sin too,

and you can fall too. So don't be judgy. You're

not invincible. So we don't play Monday morning quarterback.

No, no, no, no.

We walk beside people and we lift them up. The

last lesson today is we close out greedy. Obedience ends

with restitution. Let me tell you what happens at the

end of Job. For thirty eight chapters. Job wants to

know why am I suffering? And then in chapter thirty

eight God comes to him and.

Guess what God does.

To all the questions that Job had Guess how many

he answered.

Zero? God doesn't give.

Him the answer at all. Instead, God gives him something

way better.

He gives them himself.

And those of you who have ever had the dark

knight or the soul, those of you who've ever truly

suffered in this life, you know what it's like.

You're just like Man.

If I could just hear one word from God, I

know everythings will be fine, or if I can just

experience the presence of God of God will just show

up in my life right now.

And what happened was at.

Job's lowest moment, God shows up and he gives himself

to Job. And then Job, all of a sudden, guess what,

he doesn't.

Care anymore about why he.

Suffered, because he saw the majesty of God. God said

to him Job, as he was talking about who he was,

He says, Job, where were you when I laid the

Earth's foundation? Have you ever commanded the morning or comprehended

the vast expanses of the earth. In other words, Job,

look what I've done. Job, I can take care of

your problem. If I can create the earth in the world,

in the universe and uphold it, I could take.

Care of your problem.

And then Job, after he sees all of God, he

says this, my ears have heard of you. But now

my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and

repent in dust and ashes. In other words, oh man,

none of that matters. Now that I have you, I

know you're with me, and you see me, and you're

my friend.

See.

Job realizes that knowing God is better than knowing all

the answers. And as a result, God doesn't have to

do this. But guess what God does. God only gives

him himself, but he restores everything.

What does that say here?

God blessed Job's later life even more than his earlier life.

He ended up with fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels,

one thousand team of oxen, and one thousand donkeys.

He even has seven sons and three daughters.

And so it is through Job's gritty obedience and sticking

it out and during it led to restoration. Now here's

how I want you to understand the Book of Job.

At the beginning, we start the book of Job, and

we have a glimpse of heaven. God is on the

throne and God is in charge. Job suffers and he

doesn't know why. At the end of the Book of Job,

we get a glimpse of what heaven is going to

be like, we too will.

Enter into the presence of God.

And every tear will be wiped, every pain will be healed,

every loss in our life will be restored by God.

And so job begins with a glimpse of heaven. Then

there's the trials of this life, and then it shows

us what it's gonna be like for us someday when

we go to heaven. When we go to heaven, we

will see Jesus and all of our questions will go away,

and then everything that we lost.

Will be restored to us.

You see, faithful endurance leads to restitution, and only God

has the power to restore. See, we're gonna lose our

life here on this earth, but then we're gonna get

eternal life there. We're gonna lose our health here, okay,

but we're gonna be healed there. We're gonna leave our

wealth behind, but then we're gonna worship in the moory

of His riches there.

We're gonna experience pain here, but we're gonna be overwhelmed

with praise there.

Hebrews says this, you need to persevere so that when

you have done the will of God, you will receive

all this promise. In other words, someday, if you will

live a life of gritty obedience, all things will be restored.

All right, let me close up now, going back to

where we started today, we got.

Some serious questions as a church this week, and we

want answers.

And this week our congregation wants to know why one

of our families had to leave us in such a

tragic way. And I don't have an answer for you,

and I will never have an answer for you. But

I do know this that one by one.

Each of us are gonna pass from this earth.

Then we're gonna see Jesus. Then we're gonna see his disciples.

Then we're going to see our friends and friends and

our family that pass before us.

Then eventually.

We're gonna run into Rod and Cindy and they're gonna

be full of joy. And then we might even look

over and see Jay's leading worship with a beautiful, beautiful voice.

Because in the end, God being God, will make all

things right. So here's what here's the question as we

get towards the end of the Book of Job. I

believe the Book of Job again is about teaching us

how to be a better church. So what can we

commit to do in the meantime. Over these years as

a church, well, I think we could commit and I

think job Is taught us that we need to show

up when our friends are hurting.

We need to mourn with those who mourn.

We need to not judge other people. We need to

encourage other people. We need to pray for other people.

We need to suffer with each other. Okay, we need

to endure with each other, serve each other, be patient

with each other, be compassionate with each other, be generous

with each other.

We need to be a family, a.

Family that you could trust, a family that you can

lean on, a family that's there at the births. But

we're also holding the hands as they slip away in life.

And when we do these things, we're gonna become a

better church, a church that brings God glory, that trust

in His goodness and.

Obey even when it cost us.

And when we do that, we will become the people

that God has called us to be.

We're gonna close up today. I feel like it's appropriate

for us to close up.

Singing the song that's the staff sung this morning or

Monday morning. We're gonna sing it as well with my soul. Now,

for those of you who knew the family, I've talked

to so many of you. I know you're hurting, You're confused.

It's tough. For those of you who don't know the family.

We need you to mourn as we mourn. Let us sing.

H m h.

M.

When peace s my coy but my way, when.

So li see bills for.

Worlds my.

Now has time.

To say, it is well.

It is we.

With my soul.

It is with.

Is with my soul, my soul, It is well. It

is well.

With my so.

My sin.

Oh the bliss.

Of this school, school.

My scene, not impart, not the he is nail to

the cross and die b nom, Praise the Lord, praise the.

My soul.

It is.

Where is.

With my school, with my sole?

He is well. It is well with.

My son.

You stand as we sing this last first together.

Oh, hastday when my face shall beside.

The cloud bell back as a school.

Oh, the trum shall resigned.

And the.

Shop descend.

He so.

He is well with my soul. Well is.

Bea my soul, my soul.

He it is well. He is well with my.

Sou Well.

The world.

With mine, Lord, Father God, We thank you Lord.

For your grace and for your presence. Thank you, Lord

for the hope that you give us, for the hope

that we have in Jesus, Father God, thank you that

because of you, because of your presence, because of your

love for me, because that you chose me first, that

it is well with my soul. Father God, thank you

that we have a hope to see you, Lord, and

being with you is better than anything ever.

So it is well with my soul.

Thank you Lord that you welcome us with open arms,

so it is well with my soul.

Thank you, Lord that you.

Welcome our questions and our grief with open arms. So

it is well with my soul.

Father.

Thank you Lord, Amen.